Persuasive tech in keeping chronic patients’ willingness in health self-management

Chronic disease is a long and very harmful illness to patient. With the improvement of e-health technology, many users can monitor and manage their health condition at home. At the same time, recording health data is a time-consuming and boring work. Without the supervision of health care professionals, many patients feel very difficult to persist on it by themselves. This platform with persvasive tech is designed to test the effectiveness of peer pressure in the health self-management in the e-health.</p

B -> J/psi K^* Decays in QCD Factorization

The hadronic decay B -> J K^* is analyzed within the framework of QCD factorization. The spin amplitudes A_0, A_\parallel and A_\perp in the transversity basis and their relative phases are studied using various different form-factor models for B-K^* transition. The effective parameters a_2^h for helicity h=0,+,- states receive different nonfactorizable contributions and hence they are helicity dependent, contrary to naive factorization where a_2^h are universal and polarization independent. QCD factorization breaks down even at the twist-2 level for transverse hard spectator interactions. Although a nontrivial strong phase for the A_\parallel amplitude can be achieved by adjusting the phase of an infrared divergent contribution, the present QCD factorization calculation cannot say anything definite about the phase phi_\parallel. Unlike B -> J/psi K decays, the longitudinal parameter a_2^0 for B -> J/psi K^* does not receive twist-3 corrections and is not large enough to account for the observed branching ratio and the fraction of longitudinal polarization. Possible enhancement mechanisms for a_2^0 are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, a table and a reference added, some typos correcte

Effect modification of the association between meteorological variables and mortality by urban climatic conditions in the tropical city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan

A deeper understanding of extreme hot weather are needed in cities sensitive to heat effects, an investigation was done in the tropical town of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Its 11 districts were divided into three climatic classes varying from high urban heat, low levels of green space and lack of proximity to water bodies to low urban heat, adequate green space and proximity to water bodies. Daily data on natural mortality, meteorological variables, and pollutants from May-October 1999-2008 were analysed using generalised additive models for the time-series data. Subgroup analyses were conducted, stratifying decedents according to the level of planning activity required in order to mitigate adverse heat effects in their residential areas, classifying districts as “level 1” for those requiring a high level of mitigation action; “level 2” for those requiring some action; and “level 3” for those that need only preserve existing conditions. Stratified analyses showed that mortality increases per 1 °C rise on average, either on the same day or in the previous 4 days (lags 0-4), were associated with 2.8%, 2.3% and -1.3% for level 1, 2 and 3 districts, respectively. The slope describing the association between temperature and mortality was higher above 29.0 °C resulting in corresponding increases of 4.2%, 5.0% and 0.3% per per 1 °C rise in temperature, respectively. Other meteorological variables were not significantly associated with mortality. It is concluded that hot season mortality in Kaohsiung is only sensitive to heat effects in districts classified as having unfavourably climatic conditions and requiring mitigation efforts in city planning. Urban planning measures designed to improve climatic conditions could reduce excess mortality resulting from extreme hot weathe

Topology Optimization Method Research on Hollow Wide-chord Fan Blade of a High-bypass Turbofan Engine

AbstractIn order to realize lightweight design of a high-bypass turbofan engine, topology optimization of vacuum structure on a wide-chord fan blade was carried out regarding mixed loading conditions as static strength, vibration and bird-strike. Without changing the leaf shape, relationship of performance indices on vacuum structure was analyzed with simplified mechanical model of loading conditions. Topology optimization designs were carried out according to the highly sensitive conditions. Vacuum structure layout of fan blade was constructed integrating the major load transfer paths in each design proposal. Performance indices of different fan blade structures were compared. Result shown that optimized fan blade can realize lightweight as well as meeting the strength design requirement

Development and workflow of a continuous protein crystallization process: A case of lysozyme

In the present work, a workflow on the development of a continuous protein crystallization is introduced, with lysozyme as a model protein, from microliter screening experiments, to small scale batch crystallization experiments in a shaking crystallization platform, and to batch and continuous crystallization experiments in an oscillatory flow platform. The lysozyme crystallizations investigated were for a concentration range from 30 to 100 mg/mL, shaking conditions from 100 to 200 rpm in the batch shaking crystallization platform, and oscillatory conditions with amplitude (x 0 ) from 5 to 30 mm and frequency (f) from 0.1 to 1.0 Hz in the batch oscillatory flow crystallization platform. We propose the use of the Reynold's number (R e ) for scaling up of the process from the shaking batch to the continuous oscillatory flow platform. Additionally, it is shown that the nucleation rate increased with increase in concentration of initial lysozyme solution, or increase in shear rate, inducing smaller size of lysozyme crystals. The properties and qualities of the crystal products indicate that continuous crystallization platforms may offer advantages to the downstream bioprocessing of proteins

Impact of Subleading Corrections on Hadronic B Decays

We study the subleading corrections originating from the 3-parton (q\bar q g) Fock states of final-state mesons in B decays. The corrections could give significant contributions to decays involving an \omega or \eta^{(\prime)} in the final states. Our results indicate the similarity of \omega K and \omega \pi^- rates, of order 5\times 10^{-6}, consistent with the recent measurements. We obtain a_2(B\to J/\psi K)\approx 0.27+0.05i, in good agreement with data. Without resorting to the unknown singlet annihilation effects, 3-parton Fock state contributions can enhance the branching ratios of K\eta' to the level above 50\times 10^{-6}.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, revtex4; some typos corrected, a new figure and a reference added, more explanations for the calculation provided, to appear in Phys. Rev.